This invention relates generally to a development apparatus for ionographic or electrophotographic imaging and printing apparatuses and machines, and more particularly is directed to a developer apparatus for providing custom colored marking particles.
Customer selectable colors are typically utilized to provide instant identification and authenticity to a document. As such, the customer is usually highly concerned that the color meets particular color specifications. For example, the red color associated with Xerox"" digital stylized xe2x80x9cXxe2x80x9d is a customer selectable color having a particular shade, hue and color value. Likewise, the particular shade of orange associated with Syracuse University is a good example of a customer selectable color. A more specialized example of customer selectable color output can be found in the field of xe2x80x9ccustom colorxe2x80x9d, which specifically refers to registered proprietary colors, such as used, for example, in corporate logos, authorized letterhead, and official seals. The yellow associated with Kodak brand products, and the brown associated with Hershey brand products are good examples of custom colors which are required to meet exacting color standards in a highlight color or spot color printing application.
The various colors typically utilized for standard highlighting processes generally do not precisely match customer selectable colors. Moreover, customer selectable colors typically cannot be accurately generated via halftone process color methods because the production of solid image areas of a particular color using halftone image processing techniques typically yields nonuniformity of the color in the image area.
Further, lines and text produced by halftone process color are very sensitive to misregistration of the multiple color images such that blurring, color variances, and other image quality defects may result. As a result of the deficiencies noted above, customer selectable color production in electrostatographic printing systems is typically carried out by providing a singular premixed developing material composition made up of a mixture of multiple color toner particles blended in preselected concentrations for producing the desired customer selectable color output. This method of mixing multiple color toners to produce a particular color developing material is analogous to processes used to produce customer selectable color paints and inks. In offset printing, for example, a customer selectable color output image is produced by printing a solid image pattern with a premixed customer selectable color printing ink as opposed to printing a plurality of halftone image patterns with various primary colors or compliments thereof.
This concept has generally been extended to electrostatographic printing technology, as disclosed, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,393, wherein an electrostatic latent image is developed by a dry powder developing material comprising two or more compatible toner compositions which have been mixed together to produce a customer selectable color output. Customer selectable color printing materials including paints, printing inks, and developing materials can be manufactured by determining precise amounts of constituent basic color components making up a given customer selectable color material, providing precisely measured amounts of each constituent basic color component, and thoroughly mixing these color components.
This process is commonly facilitated by reference to a color guide or swatch book containing hundreds or even thousands of swatches illustrating different colors, wherein each color swatch is associated with a specific formulation of colorants. Probably the most popular of these color guides is published by PANTONE(copyright), Inc. of Moonachie, N.J. The PANTONE(copyright) Color Formula Guide expresses colors using a certified matching system and provides the precise formulation necessary to produce a specific customer selectable color by physically intermixing predetermined concentrations of up to four colors from a set of up to 18 principal or basic colors. There are many colors available using the PANTONE(copyright) system or other color formula guides of this nature that cannot be produced via typical halftone process color methods or even from mixing selected amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow and/or black inks or developer materials.
In the typical operational environment, an electrostatographic printing system may be used to print various customer selectable color documents. To that end, replaceable containers of premixed customer selectable color developing materials corresponding to each customer selectable color are provided for each print job.
Replacement of the premixed customer selectable color developer materials or substitution of another premixed color between different print jobs necessitates operator intervention which typically requires manual labor and machine downtime, among other undesirable requirements. In addition, since each customer selectable color is typically manufactured at an off-site location, supplies of each customer selectable color printing ink must be separately stored for each customer selectable color print job.
There is provided an apparatus for developing a latent image recorded on an imaging surface with a custom color toner, including a developer housing for developing a portion of said latent image with the toner of custom color, said developer housing including a donor member for transporting toner and carrier of said custom color to a development zone, a replaceable reservoir unit for mixing and supplying said custom color toner and carrier to the donor member, an array of toner dispensers for supplying various primary color toners, as required, to achieve said custom color, and additional reservoirs to allow for faster convergence to a given point in the color space.
There is provided a custom color housing, containing a replaceable first reservoir for storing a supply of developer material comprising toner of a first color; other replaceable reservoirs for storing a supply of developer material comprising toner of other colors, said other reservoirs being interchangeable with said first reservoir in the housing; an array of dispensers for dispensing toner of other colors into said housing, said reservoirs including means for mixing toner of said first color and toner of said other colors together to form toner of a required custom color and a color controller, in communication with said dispensers, for determining appropriate amounts of toners of said other colors to be added to said housing to achieve the custom color.